So, Microsoft was shocked, shocked! to discover that the usual suspects were doing that which they’re famous for doing.

Perhaps they were as surprised as they claim. Perhaps they were as ignorant of the show as most people assume.

Or, perhaps, not.

Presumably, somewhere in the fine print of the deal, Microsoft’s attorneys will have included a clause to the effect that Microsoft need not pay at all — or will pay only a modest amount — for a work product it deems unusable.

The deal resulted in Microsoft’s enjoying considerable buzz in one of their primary markets — college students – probably at minimal cost, and certainly without offending their main focus, the business market, which would be likely to respond with considerably less enthusiasm to yuks about incest and the disabled than the kegophiles at Kappa Kappa Kappa.

Seth MacFarlane comes out of the deal with, one assumes, considerably less money than he’d anticipated this relationship would produce. Assuming he wants this work product to produce additional revenue for him, he has a complex editing task ahead of him, excising every mention of Microsoft.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that he’s contemplating adding to all the computers pictured the symbol for a different company – say, “Peachy Computing.”